The Trip Back

The trip back was basically drive sleep drive sleep drive sleep drive sleep drive sleep. without commas, because there wasn't really a break btwn the driving and the sleeping.

I suppose there were a few pee-breaks as well.

No sex. The whole way back.

We stayed with people we knew, except for thunder bay, where we stayed in a hostel.

I was ready to kill luke at the end, but i love him again.

When i get the chance to write some more, i'll post some all over musings about the summer

love for all

Jeri

Vancouver Island

Day 1:

we woke up fairly late, and made the 11:00 ferry to Victoria. The ferry was absolutely beautiful, one and a half hours of islands and beautiful weather. It was marvelous. Then, we drove into Victoria, and looked for a place to stay for the evening. Everywhere was expensive, and Victoria didn't agree with Luke, so we decided to head out early and go to Nanaimo instead, where we had found a hostel for $40. We found out when we got there, however, that the hostel was $40 for a reason. It was right over top of a bar, so there was loud music the entire time, and you had to go into the bar to get your room, so I got approached by the kind of people who frequented bars at 4:00 pm. We got into our room, and it was like a jail. There were double bunk beds with threadbare mattresses and only one pillow, and the room was painted beige with no windows and no decorations. We did have a private bathroom though. We decided to just hang out for the evening and explore the next day.

Day 2:

Day two on Vancouver Island was amazing. Firstly, I surprised Luke by taking him bungee jumping off of the nanaimo river. Neither of us had done it before, and i wanted to do something we'd really remember, since we were nearing the end of our trip. Well, I'll definitely remember it. I got up onto the ledge, and my feet felt like they were slipping out of the hinges already. I was absolutely terrified. The only thing running through my mind was "oh my god, i'm going to slip out and die". i leaned forward, let go of the bars, and my mind went blank for a second. It felt like i was in slow motion as i first started to fall forward. Then, i picked up more and more speed until my mind started to work again. All i could think was "holy shit, this is fast. oh my god. i am going to die". Then, i started to slow down and i eased back up. I bounced a few more times and then i lowered myself onto the platform at the end. If you want to watch the video, it'll be on facebook and youtube. I really can't describe the feeling though, nothing i say will do it justice. It's incredible though, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is an adrenaline junkie.

Afterwards, we bought our videos, because we needed something to remember the occasion by, and we drove back into the city. I had another surprise for luke, to an extent. We took a tiny person ferry to Protection Island, which is right off of the nanaimo harbour, and we had dinner on the pub which floats off of the island. It was reasonably priced, very unique, and offered a great view of the city. After that, we went to Parksville, where we swam into the sea until my relatives called, then we went over to their place. Meeting Tom and his wife was great. They are some of the kindest people I've ever met. They took us on a tour of the area, where we saw goats on the roof and a huge waterfall, and then afterward they bought us ice cream, baked us bread, folded our laundry, and gave us a place to sleep. They were so generous, it was way more than was needed.

Day 3:

The next day was quite unexciting. We drove from Parksville to Tofino, thinking of all the glamour that would come. On the drive over, however, I learned that my roommate was moving out, which meant that I'd have to find a new one. It put a bit of a damper on the day, and i was kind of in a bad mood. We got to Tofino excited about what the little town was going to be. It fell short of expectations. There were people everywhere, it was so crowded, and we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. We had lunch, and then decided to leave for Ucluelet, which we had heard was a nicer city and was also on the Pacific Rim. We went to a surf shop there, and met some nice people who hooked us up with lessons, coffee, and told us about a great place to camp nearby. So we drove there, wasted some time, set up our tent, and went to bed.

Day 4:

This day was better. We woke up bright and early, had breakfast, and went to get our rental gear so we could go learn how to surf. We were taught by the same person we'd talked to the day before, so it wasn't as nerve-wrecking as I thought it would be. I wasn't very good, but we stayed in the water for 3 hours and i finally got up on the board once. To be honest, i had a lot more fun just riding the waves back to shore. after the 3 hours of paddling, "surfing" and falling off of my board a lot, we went, made lunch in the parking lot, then drove to a new beach. At this place, i decided to lie down and read my book on the beach, while Luke, who really got the hang of the surfing thing and absolutely loved it, went back out into the water for another 4 hours. After 4 hours of that, we went for food, then drove back to Victoria super quickly. Once we were there, we met up with one of luke's friends, had some meaningful conversation and crashed for the evening.

vancouver part 2

Day 3:

We pretty much lazed around for the entire first half of the day, watching movies and playing DDR at Sarah’s apartment. Then, at 5 pm we started walking downtown, where we were meeting some relatives for dinner. It turned out to be Vern, the guy we’d met the day before, plus Heidie and her husband and children, so it was quite a big group. We got to the restaurant, and it was super super nice. We were terrified, we couldn’t afford the salads, let alone the entrees. We got in, and the waiter poured us wine and put our napkin on our lap for us. It was intense. Our fears were alleviated though, when they told us to not worry about prices and to order whatever we wanted. So we did. I can’t imagine it was cheap, and that’s all I could think about. I started to feel really sick towards the end, so I went downstairs in case I threw up, and in the bathroom there was a bleached blonde, fake-tanned girl wearing a skirt that could have been a belt. “Sorry for taking up so much space,” she said. “my boyfriend just bought my thousand dollar sunglasses. It’s his birthday and we just got back from cabo.”

“cool,” i replied, unaware of what else i could say.

BUT i felt better when i came up, so we walked to the beach to watch the fireworks. It was so crowded there. Apparently people come and wait at this beach from 3 pm to see a 20 minute fireworks display. It’s absolutely ridiculous. The fireworks were a lot of fun, but not worth waiting 6 hours to see. Afterwards, we were supposed to walk downtown to go out with Sarah and her friends, but I had a massive headache, so we just walked home and went to sleep.

Day 4:

• this day was a lot of walking. early in the day, we walked downtown to get seats for the pride parade. The parade was more tame than i expected, but it was still a lot of fun. I saw a bunch of cool floats (pictures to come) and got a bunch of free condoms. :)
• after the parade we met up with my cousin Alana and her husband Adam. They took us out to lunch, and we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown, seeing the sights and drinking coffee. It was really great to see them again, they’re super cool people. Very chill and down to earth.
• after that, we rented bicycles and drove around stanley park. I hadn’t been on a bike in like 4 years, and i ran off the bike path a few times and luke laughed at me. other than that though, the ride was absolutely gorgeous. not much else to say.
• after that, we went to the night market in richmond, where we got some asian food, cheap headphones and some awesome other things that i can’t remember right now.

The next day we drove to Victoria, and I’ll leave that for another blog post. One I may write later today, or i may not.

BY THE WAY for anyone that cares, we’re on our way back now, so ALL luke is doing is driving, which is why i have so much time to catch up on my posts.

Vancouver part 1

The Trek into BC:

We left Calgary around noon, driving for around 7 hours. We were headed to Vancouver, but on the way, we got a text message from my mom’s really good friends in England saying they were in Canada on vacation for a couple of weeks. Turns out they were hanging in the Shuswap Lakes, which is right off the trans canada highway and totally on our way, so we decided to stop in and see them and meet for dinner.

We finally got there, and the drive was absolutely gorgeous. Turns out they were staying with another expat family that we knew, so it was a big party. We had a delicious dinner and a few drinks, and went swimming in the lake. It was so great to catch up with Lois and Jeremy and to see the kids. They’ve gotten so big, they’re all taller than me! In the evening, we had a campfire and played campfire games. Then we had ice cream and tea and went to sleep. They had said there wasn’t enough room for us in the cabin, but they let us sleep on the porch, which was super nice of them. We woke up at 6 in the morning, because we’d promised to meet Sarah in BC for brunch, and drove another 6 hours to get into Vancouver at noon.

The drive was absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know why, but i’d assumed that the drive into BC would be more prairies after the mountains, but the mountains didn’t seem to end. We kept driving and winding through mountains and lakes and everything and the view never ceased. We hit some brutal construction and traffic going into Vancouver, but eventually we arrived at Sarah’s place.

VANCOUVER!

Day 1:

• we had brunch with Sarah and her friend Amelie at this place called Sophie’s Cosmic diner. It was averagely priced, but the food was delicious and the decor was a lot of fun.
• we walked downtown and went to the beach. It still surprises me that there are actual beaches downtown. It’s such a change from Saint John, where the coastline is all disgusting and unswimmable.
• we took a bus from downtown to go get Sushi at this place called The Eatery. It was delicious and really weird. It was the sushi bar for hipsters. On the cieling, they had statues made of mcdonalds toys and other stuff like that. The sushi was pretty good though, if a little expensive.
• we went back to the apartment, regrouped, and then went to Room 18 for $1.55 beers. They were delicious.

Day 2:

• we chilled out until 3 pm, when we went to meet one of my relatives I’d never met before for dinner. We ate at The Local, which has an amazing veggie burger. It was so delicious, it had guacamole and salsa on it, and was pretty much the best thing ever. Highly recommended. like my reccomendations mean anything. It was also really cool to meet a new relative. He seemed like a really cool guy, very into sports and fitness, but at the same time like a sort of overgrown kid. He still loved to party.
• after dinner, we walked to the beach and hung out for a little bit, then went home and watched a movie.
• after that, we went to Luke’s friend’s place for a couple of drinks and to catch up. I’d never met her before, but Elle seemed really cool. We had a lot of wine, went for a walk, listened to music, then went home

Calgary!

So late that evening, we got into Calgary, and we were tired and hungry. Terry catered to those needs perfectly by making us some tortellini, chatting for a bit, and then showing us our bed. While we chatted however, a crazy hail storm ensued. Ot was absolutely ridiculous. One second it was just kind of rainy, the next second it looked like a blizzard outside. it was crazyyyyy. Luke had left his sunroof open, so he had to go close it, and he was sitting inside the car while it hailed, terrified that a hailstone was going to crack through the windshield. but then it went away and we went to sleep.

The next day, we went to calaway park, which is an okay amusement park, but the lines were too long for the "good" rides and they weren't really worth the wait. the other rides that were thrill rides but were a bit smaller were better cuz the lines were shorter and it was just as much fun. one of them, though, didn't even have seatbelts and you go upside down. it was terrifying. the super spinner was the best ride though. and luke bought me cotton candy and it was amazing. that night, we went to visit carli, and then we went home for an early night. We wanted to catch up with Johnathan, with whom we met up on the way to newfoundland, but his phone broke.

The next day, we headed out to Vancouver!! more on that later!

The Great Outdoors.

After we finished up our business in Edmonton, we drove up to Jasper to spend the day and do a little hike. We found a camp site a little ways outside the city, set up camp there, and then went into Jasper to find out what the best kind of hikes to do were. We wanted a short one to do that evening, and then a longer one to do the next day.

We were recommended a hike to the Glacier lakes in Edith Cavell, so we did a little hour and a half hike there. It was absolutely phenomenal. The lakes had little bits of ice in them and it was absolutely gorgeous. I'll post pics when i get the chance. Also, jasper was absolutely beautiful. Way nicer than banff because it was less touched by the tourist craze. Also also, there were no drive in campsites left at the park, but we got a walk in site, and it was gorgeous cuz there were no campers or trucks there. Then we made dinner and played crib by the campfire and went to sleep in our tent.

The next day we were going to go for a big hike on the columbia icefields, but we didn't feel like it so we just drove all day from jasper to lake louise, then banff. we stopped in lake louise to look at the lake, and we also drove up to the lake above jasper whose name i can't remember to look at it as well. we stopped at our campground, and were kind of tired, so we set up camp, made dinner, and went to sleep.

the next day was the day i walked down memory lane. we got up, and went to banff to look around. we went to the fairmont banff springs to see where my mother got married to my father. then, we drove to canmore, where we went on a gorgeous hike my mother did twice while pregnant, and once with me. when we were done with that, we drove to bragg creek and redwood meadows to see my old house and elementary school, and then we finally drove to Calgary, where we crashed with my mom's friend Terry. :)